Abstract. The assessment of anthropogenic impacts on the marine environment is challenged by the accessibility, accuracy and validity of biogeographical information. Offshore wind farm projects require large-scale ecological surveys before, during and after construction, in order to assess potential effects on the distribution and abundance of protected species. The robustness of site-specific population estimates depends largely on the extent and design of spatial coverage and the accuracy of the applied census technique. Standard environmental assessment studies in Germany have so far included aerial visual surveys to evaluate potential impacts of offshore wind farms on seabirds and marine mammals. However, low flight altitudes, necessary for the visual classification of species, disturb sensitive bird species and also hold significant safety risks for the observers. Thus, aerial surveys based on high-resolution digital imagery, which can be carried out at higher (safer) flight altitudes (beyond the rotor-swept zone of the wind turbines) have become a mandatory requirement, technically solving the problem of distant-related observation bias. A purpose-assembled imagery system including medium-format cameras in conjunction with a dedicated geo-positioning platform delivers series of orthogonal digital images that meet the current technical requirements of authorities for surveying marine wildlife at a comparatively low cost. At a flight altitude of 425 m, a focal length of 110 mm, implemented forward motion compensation (FMC) and exposure times ranging between 1/1600 and 1/1000 s, the twin-camera system generates high quality 16 bit RGB images with a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 2 cm and an image footprint of 155 x 410 m. The image files are readily transferrable to a GIS environment for further editing, taking overlapping image areas and areas affected by glare into account. The imagery can be routinely screened by the human eye guided by purpose-programmed software to distinguish biological from non-biological signals. Each detected seabird or marine mammal signal is identified to species level or assigned to a species group and automatically saved into a geo-database for subsequent quality assurance, geo-statistical analyses and data export to third-party users. The relative size of a detected object can be accurately measured which provides key information for species-identification. During the development and testing of this system until 2015, more than 40 surveys have produced around 500.000 digital aerial images, of which some were taken in specially protected areas (SPA) of the Baltic Sea and thus include a wide range of relevant species. Here, we present the technical principles of this comparatively new survey approach and discuss the key methodological challenges related to optimizing survey design and workflow in view of the pending regulatory requirements for effective environmental impact assessments.


During the past ten years, mentoring has been increasingly recognised as a key strategy in professional training and development programmes in education, health care, business and industry. Although the concept of mentoring is not entirely new, it is difficult to define. While frequent reference to the term �mentor� in everyday practice, training manuals and policy handbooks creates the impression that a general understanding of the notion of mentoring exists, the multitude of definitions and interpretations of how it is to be performed suggests otherwise. Mentoring can thus be perceived as a �helping process� (Caruso, 1990), a teaching-learning process (Ardery, 1990), as an intentional, structural, nurturing, insightful [process either developing along stages or rhythms, but not in series of events (Roberts, 2000). Bennetts (1996) adds a pedagogical, democratic dimension by stating that mentoring is learner-centred and progresses at the rate determined by the mentor and the mentee. Mentoring can thus cover a variety of activities ranging from helper functions to those of assessment. In addition, Herald (1999) lists career counselling, salary negotiations, job searches, curriculum vitae preparation and developing political savy as some of the multifarious activities to be performed by mentors. Depending on individual perceptions, the multiple purposes it serves and the various settings within which it occurs, practice remains inconsistent and idiosyncratic.

However, within the context of professional training and development, a shift of emphasis away from the personal towards the professional is evident. Current conceptualisations of mentoring prevalent in the health and education context tend to bear little resemblance to the original Greek model, according to which the mentor�s role was that of an older, trusted and loyal friend, who responsible for the growth and development of the protege and whose characteristics were integrity, wisdom and personal involvement. The relationship was highly personal and mutually respectful. Furthermore, the standards assessment frameworks within which the training of teachers, nurses, midwives, and more recently, that of doctors, is located, requires mentors to exercise the role of assessor, which is potentially problematic in terms of conflicting loyalties


Our goal is to overview the Application Programming Interface (API) we have developed to allow for the integration of Smalltalk-80 applications with Unix spreadsheets. We first present two motivating examples and summarize the relevance of spreadsheets for Smalltalk applications. Our contention is that two omnipresent but cumbersome tasks of Smalltalk applications can be efficiently handled by a spreadsheet, namely the driving and the monitoring of an application. We overview the implementation of our API in order to demonstrate that the Smalltalk-80 programming environment is easily integratable with other Unix applications, and to emphasize the benefits of such a potential for integration.<<ETX>>


One of our research goal is the design of algorithms capable of detecting, with some robustness guaranteed by a suitable performance criterion, random signals with unknown distributions and occurrences in additive and stationary noise. This research is motivated by numerous practical applications where the lack of prior information about the signals or most of their describing parameters is an obstacle to the use of standard likelihood ratio theory. Several results established and assessed in various signal processing applications suggest that our goal could actually be attainable in a nearby future. Part of these results concern robust and non-parametric statistical inference based on assumptions of weak sparseness for the signal. The notion of weak sparseness slightly differs from that introduced by Donoho and Johnstone. Another set of results address statistical properties of the wavelet transform of wide-sense stationary random processes and fractional brownian motions. Some of the aforementioned results have been published separately, whereas others have been submitted only recently. Our purpose is then to present these results altogether so as to examine the links between them and pinpoint possible extensions. In particular, a perspective is the design of algorithms that perform more than the detection of random sigals with unknown distributions, but actually acquire statistical knowledge about these signals to optimize their detection. Beyond the description of standard possible applications in image processing and non-parametric statistics, the presentation will also give the opportunity to initiate a discussion on the application of these results to the design of new types of cell automata.


A new method for building bit-parallel polynomial basis finite field multipliers is proposed in this thesis. Among the different approaches to build such multipliers, Mastrovito multipliers based on a trinomial, an all-one-polynomial, or an equally-spacedpolynomial have the lowest complexities. The next best in this category is a conventional multiplier based on a pentanomial. Any newly presented method should have complexity results which are at least better than those of a pentanomial based multiplier. By applying our method to certain classes of finite fields we have gained a space complexity as n + H 4 and a time complexity as TA + ([ log2(n-l) ]+3)rx which are better than the lowest space and time complexities of a pentanomial based multiplier found in literature. Therefore this multiplier can serve as an alternative in those finite fields in which no trinomial, all-one-polynomial or equally-spaced-polynomial exists.


Two major challenges in mathematics teacher education are developing teacher understanding of (a) culturally responsive, social justice–oriented mathematics pedagogies and (b) mathematical modeling as a content and practice standard of mathematics. Although these challenges may seem disparate, the innovation described in this article is designed to address both challenges in synergistic ways. The innovation focuses on a mathematical modeling task related to the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Through qualitative analysis of instructor field notes, teachergenerated mathematical models, and teacher survey responses, we found that teachers who participated in the Flint Water Task (FWT) engaged in mathematical modeling and critical discussions about social and environmental justice. The evidence suggests that integrating these 2 foci–by using mathematical modeling to investigate and analyze important social justice issues–can be a high-leverage practice for mathematics teacher educators committed to equity-based mathematics education. Implications for integrating social justice and mathematical modeling in preservice and in-service mathematics teacher education are discussed.


This paper describes a pilot project in a computing college at a UAE university that was conducted to determine the feasibility of adapting a US-developed innovative approach to program level assessment of generic skills, 21st century, or general education learning outcomes. These learning outcomes are thought to comprise critical thinking, problem solving, global perspective, teamwork, and communication- ones that cross all disciplinary boundaries. The method of assessment utilized was an online discussion forum built around an open-ended computing scenario. Results indicated that this approach proved to be a success and demonstrated very clearly where the students' strengths and weaknesses resided. Suggestions for further enhancements and implementations are provided.


ABSTRACT
 Both wild and cultivated oysters are consumed in South Africa. Edible wild oysters include Striostrea margaritacea, Saccostrea cucullata, Ostrea atherstonei, and O. algoensis, all of which occur along the south and east coasts, but not on the west coast. Wild oysters are exploited commercially, recrcationally, and by subsistence fishers, with S. margaritacea being by far the most intensively targeted species. Commercial harvesting of S. margaritacea takes place along the southern Cape coast and in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), with the southern Cape hosting 102 of the 145 commercial pickers. Data on total annual commercial catch of oysters in the various harvesting areas are presented, but these are minimum estimates, because collectors do not always comply with harvesting regulations or fully report catches. Subsistence harvesting remains largely unmanagcd, except in KZN, and is particularly prevalent in the eastern Cape Province. The culture of oysters is dependent on imported Crassostrea gigas spat, mostly from Chile. Accurate annual oyster production statistics arc only available since 1985, although approximately 2 million C. gigas oysters are known to have been cultured annually throughout the 1970s and early '80s. Since then, production increased steadily from 1985 to 1991, peaking at some 8 million individuals, then declined to 2–4 million individuals from the mid 1990s onward. Although the market for oysters has grown, production has not kept up with demand, largely because of a lack of suitable locations for oyster culture. Finding suitable sites for cultivation along the northern Cape Province coast and establishing local oyster hatcheries for C. gigas are suggested as future priorities for the industry.


Boriskino is a poorly studied CM chondrite with numerous millimeter‐ to centimeter‐scale clasts exhibiting sharp boundaries. Clast textures and mineralogies attest to diverse geological histories with various degrees of aqueous alteration. We conducted a petrographic, chemical, and isotopic study on each clast type of the breccia to investigate if there exists a genetic link between brecciation and aqueous alteration, and to determine the controlling parameter of the extent of alteration. Boriskino is dominated by CM2 clasts for which no specific petrographic type could be assigned based on the chemical compositions and modal abundances of constituents. One clast stands out and is identified as a CM1 lithology, owing to its lack of anhydrous silicates and its overall abundance of dolomite‐like carbonates and acicular iron sulfides. We observe that alteration phases near clast boundaries exhibit foliation features, suggesting that brecciation postdated aqueous alteration. We measured the O‐isotopic composition of Ca‐carbonates and dolomite‐like carbonates to determine their precipitation temperatures following the methodology of Verdier‐Paoletti et al. (2017). Both types of carbonates yield similar ranges of precipitation temperatures independent of clast lithology, ranging from −13.9 ± 22.4 (2σ) to 166.5 ± 47.3 °C, precluding that temperature alone accounts for the differences between the CM1 and CM2 lithologies. Instead, we suggest that initial water/rock ratios of 0.75 and 0.61 for the CM1 and CM2 clasts, respectively, might control the extent of aqueous alteration. Based on these estimates, we suggest that Boriskino clasts originated from a single parent body with heterogeneous distribution of water either due to local differences in the material permeability or in the initial content of ice available. These conditions would have produced microenvironments with differing geochemical conditions thus leading to a range of degrees of aqueous alteration.


The relaxed epitaxial growth of Ni thin films has been successfully performed on both (100)- and (110)-oriented SrTiO3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition, as revealed by pole figures realized by X-ray micro-diffraction and rocking curve measurements. In the case of Ni films deposited on the (110)-SrTiO3 substrate, the advanced microstructural X-ray diffraction study (ω-scans vs. φ and reciprocal space maps) evidences the existence of two domains disoriented with respect to the substrate crystallographic axes (both in-plane with +5° and −5° tilts (±1°) and out-of-plane with +3.7° and −3.7° tilts (±0.1°), respectively). Besides the lattice misfit constraints, the layer orientation can also be controlled by strain/surface energy balance. The surface energy modeling of nickel makes it possible to explain the observed growth by low surface energy anisotropy. Furthermore, the high temperature oxidation resistance of the films under air has been studied by in situ high-temperature X-ray diffraction. While the results show the formation of a NiO oxide layer which retains the initial orientation of the Ni film, the Ni corrosion temperature is found to be 500 °C and 375 °C when grown on (100)- and (110)-SrTiO3 substrates, respectively. Such a high corrosion temperature for Ni films grown on the (100)-SrTiO3 substrate is linked to their high density, as observed by atomic force microscopy.


Emotions play a pivotal role in the individual's overall physical health. Therefore, there has been a steadily increasing interest towards emotion recognition in conversation (ERC). In this work, we propose bidirectional long short term memory (Bi-LSTM), convolutional neural network (CNN), and CNN-BiLSTM based models to predict the emotional climate established during the conversation by peers. Their speech signals across their conversation are analyzed using Mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) that are then fed to the Bi-LSTM, CNN and CNN-BiLSTM models to predict the valence and arousal emotional climate cues. The proposed approach was tested on a publicly available dataset, namely K-EmoCon, that includes emotion labeling and peers' speech signals, during their conversation. The obtained results show that Bi-LSTM, CNN and CNN-BiLSTM models achieved a classification accuracy (arousal/valence) of 67.5%/57.7%, 73.3%/66.9%, and 75.1%/68.3%, respectively. These encouraging results show that a combination of deep learning schemes could increase the classification accuracy and provide efficient emotional climate recognition in naturalistic conversation environments.


Production from ubiquitous oil and gas fields in coastal Louisiana and consequent reservoir compaction has been proposed as an important process contributing to coastal subsidence and land loss in this region. As revealed by three consecutive leveling surveys (in 1965, 1982, and 1993), an unexpected aspect of the subsidence is that the rate of subsidence actually increased after the cessation of production. To explain the accelerated postdepletion subsidence, we propose a mechanism involving time-dependent drainage and compaction in the overlying and underlying shales after depletion. We show that the shale compaction is induced by slow drainage of pore fluid from the shale to the depleted reservoir. We estimate the significance of postdepletion compaction in the bounding shale using a relatively simple analytic model in which time-dependent shale compaction is driven by pore pressure diffusion with two sets of rheological constitutive equations: one accounting for poroelastic effects and one accounting for viscoplastic deformation of the shale matrix. Our modeling shows that despite its very low permeability, after about 10 years, vertical compaction due to pressure drainage in the shale exceeds that due to depletion and compaction of the sand reservoir. Consequently, the calculated subsidence rate due to the shale compaction is higher than the subsidence induced by reservoir depletion, thus demonstrating that postdepletion compaction in the reservoir-surrounding shale may explain the observed acceleration of subsidence after depletion.


Primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) is a systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease affecting 1 in 1000 persons in the general population. pSS is characterized by lymphocyte infiltration in the lacrimal and salivary glands causing symptoms of dry eyes and dry mouth. pSS can manifest systemically in the joints, skin, peripheral nervous system, kidneys and lungs. Despite advancement in knowledge of the genetic background of pSS, the etiology of pSS remains largely unknown. Recent studies suggest that the human microbiome is involved in the development of inflammatory autoimmune diseases. However, the relationship between the human microbiome and pSS was only scarcely studied before this thesis. The aim of this thesis was to assess whether pSS is associated with a disease-specific microbiota composition in the oral cavity, the gut and the vagina. The microbiota composition of oral, fecal and vaginal samples from pSS patients was studied in comparison with that of healthy controls, population controls and disease controls using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. pSS patients showed an altered oral microbiome compared to healthy controls, which was mainly explained by reduced salivary secretion in these patients. pSS and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients shared similar alterations in the gut microbiota composition, distinguishing pSS/SLE patients from general population controls. The vaginal microbiome of women with pSS-associated vaginal dryness did not differ from controls. Our results provide evidence for a connection between the oral and gut microbiome and pSS. Future research is needed to elucidate the disease-specificity of microbiota-pSS associations and the cause and effect relationship.


Mapping cortical hemispheric asymmetries in infants would increase our understanding of the origins and developmental trajectories of hemispheric asymmetries. We analyze longitudinal cortical hemispheric asymmetries in 73 healthy subjects at birth, 1, and 2 years of age using surface-based morphometry of magnetic resonance images with a specific focus on the vertex position, sulcal depth, mean curvature, and local surface area. Prominent cortical asymmetries are found around the peri-Sylvian region and superior temporal sulcus (STS) at birth that evolve modestly from birth to 2 years of age. Sexual dimorphisms of cortical asymmetries are present at birth, with males having the larger magnitudes and sizes of the clusters of asymmetries than females that persist from birth to 2 years of age. The left supramarginal gyrus (SMG) is significantly posterior to the right SMG, and the maximum position difference increases from 10.2 mm for males (6.9 mm for females) at birth to 12.0 mm for males (8.4 mm for females) by 2 years of age. The right STS and parieto-occipital sulcus are significantly larger and deeper than those in the left hemisphere, and the left planum temporale is significantly larger and deeper than that in the right hemisphere at all 3 ages. Our results indicate that early hemispheric structural asymmetries are inherent and gender related.


Play narratives can offer a unique insight into the child's internal world. This study compared the play narratives of children in 38 lesbian-mother families; 73 two-parent, heterosexual-mother families; and 58 single-heterosexual-mother families recruited from a general population sample. Findings indicated positive mother-child relationships and well-adjusted children. Girls' narratives showed more affection than boys' and were more strongly associated with mothers' interview measures, suggesting that girls' play narratives reveal a more accurate picture of family relationships.


Robots and agents are becoming increasingly prominent in everyday life, taking on a variety of roles, including helpers, coaches, and even social companions. A core requirement for these social agents is the ability to establish and maintain long-term trusting and engaging relationship with their human users. Much research has already been done on the prerequisites for these types of social agents and robots, in affective computing, social computing and affective HCI. A number of disciplines within psychology and the social sciences are also relevant, contributing theories, data and methods relevant for the emerging areas of social robotics, and social computing in general. However, the complexity of the task of designing these social agents, and the diversity of the relevant disciplines, can be overwhelming. This paper presents a summary of a special session at ACII 2009 whose purpose was to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in social agents and robots, and to explore some of the fundamental questions regarding their development, and the evaluation of their effectiveness.


Policing technologies are increasingly being developed to surveil and control people from afar. This is especially true in relation to cross-border crimes and other global threats where the necessity of monitoring such illegal flows is often advocated. In the literature, this is sometimes referred to as "policing at a distance," signifying how the growth in different policing technologies is allowing police to oversee people without coming into physical contact with them. Overall, scholars find this development alarming. It is alarming because it reduces human lives to data points and because studies have shown how policing at a distance may trigger hateful police attitudes. With these problems of policing at a distance in mind, this article explores how an increasing use of surveillance technologies affects Danish detectives.


Modeling of phase diagrams and, in particular, the anomalous re-entrant melting curves of alkali metals is an open challenge for interatomic potentials. Machine learning-based interatomic potentials have shown promise in overcoming this challenge, unlike earlier embedded atom-based approaches. We introduce a relatively simple and inexpensive approach to develop, train, and validate a neural network-based, wide-ranging interatomic potential transferable across both temperature and pressure. This approach is based on training the potential at high pressures only in the liquid phase and on validating its transferability on the relatively easy-to-calculate cold compression curve. Our approach is demonstrated on the phase diagram of Rb for which we reproduce the cold compression curve over the Rb-I (BCC), Rb-II (FCC), and Rb-V (tI4) phases, followed by the high-pressure melting curve including the re-entry after the maximum and then the minimum at the triple liquid-FCC-BCC point. Furthermore, our potential is able to partially capture even the very recently reported liquid-liquid transition in Rb, indicating the utility of machine learning-based potentials.


This paper presents results on high-frequency ultrasonic imaging of bonds between different materials with application to friction stir welding (FSW). The unique feature of this paper is the use of high numerical aperture lenses that allow the excitation of leaky surface acoustic waves. These interact with weak bonds to produce wave interference of incident and reflected waves at weak bond interfaces. The interference provides a vivid contrast marking the weak interface bond as an easily recognisable feature. Presented are a description of the high-frequency lenses, simulation of the contrast phenomenon and the application to friction stir welds. The welds were between cast A356 and wrought 6061 Al alloys obtained under four different processing conditions. The selected sections of these were imaged at high frequencies in the GHz range by bringing the acoustic lenses towards the specimen's surface far enough so that the peripheral lens rays were incident at large enough angles to exceed the first and second critical angles and to excite leaky surface acoustic waves. The interference of these waves allowed the imaging of the bond details with a resolution of about 1.5–3 μm. The features and flaws observed in the images were correlated with those reported on in the literature as well as those obtained from scanning electron microscopy and tensile property evaluation. The quality of weld bonds inferred from the images was correlated to the tensile fracture experiments, which showed that improperly bonded specimens showed a relatively larger number of flaws. The results suggest that high-frequency acoustic microscopy is indeed a useful method for the diagnostic evaluation of FSW, especially since acoustic microscopes are now available as portable instruments commercially.


Electrochemical material characterization method was applied to the creep specimens of 12%Cr ferritic steel to evaluate the changes in precipitates during creep. Experimental results revealed that the peak current densities "Ip1" and "Ip2" appeared at specific potentials during anodic polarization curve measurement in 1M-KOH solution. These peak current densities corresponded to the selective dissolution of several kinds of precipitates, respectively. The Ip2, which reflected the amount of M23C6 and Laves phase, increased more siginificantly with creep than thermal aging. On the other hand, the effect of applied stress was not reflected on the change in Ip1, although it increased with thermal aging and creep as well as the Ip2.


The stress-responsive transcription factor EB (TFEB) is a master controller of lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy and plays a major role in several cancer-associated diseases. TFEB is regulated at the posttranslational level by the nutrient-sensitive kinase complex mTORC1. However, little is known about the regulation of TFEB transcription. Here, through integrative genomic approaches, we identify the immediate-early gene EGR1 as a positive transcriptional regulator of TFEB expression in human cells and demonstrate that, in the absence of EGR1, TFEB-mediated transcriptional response to starvation is impaired. Remarkably, both genetic and pharmacological inhibition of EGR1, using the MEK1/2 inhibitor Trametinib, significantly reduced the proliferation of 2D and 3D cultures of cells displaying constitutive activation of TFEB, including those from a patient with Birt-Hogg-Dubé (BHD) syndrome, a TFEB-driven inherited cancer condition. Overall, we uncover an additional layer of TFEB regulation consisting in modulating its transcription via EGR1 and propose that interfering with the EGR1-TFEB axis may represent a therapeutic strategy to counteract constitutive TFEB activation in cancer-associated conditions.


The binary mixture based on the protic ionic liquid (PIL) ethylimidazolium triflate (C2HImTfO) and the diol compound ethylene glycol (EG) has been investigated in the whole composition range from pure PIL to pure EG. At 30 °C the addition of EG increases both the ionic conductivity and the self-diffusivity of the ions. These quantities, however, change at different rates suggesting that the ionicity of the system is composition dependent. This behaviour is explained by means of new intermolecular forces established when a second compound like EG is introduced into the ionic network. More specifically, a complex H-bonded network is formed that involves the -NH group of the cation, the -OH group of EG and the -SO3 group of the anion. This configuration may increase the fluidity of the mixture but not necessarily the ionic dissociation. Moreover, diffusion NMR results indicate the occurrence of local proton dynamics, which arise from a proton exchange between the -NH of the cation and the -OH of EG, providing the requisite for a long-range Grotthuss mechanism of proton transport.


The emergence of wind turbine systems for electric power generation can help satisfy the growing global demand. This paper proposes a control strategy to maximize the wind energy captured in a variable speed wind turbine, with an internal induction generator, at low to medium wind speeds. The proposed strategy controls the tip speed ratio, via the rotor angular speed, to an optimum point at which the efficiency constant (or power coefficient) is maximal for a particular blade pitch angle and wind speed. This control method allows for aerodynamic rotor power maximization without exact wind turbine model knowledge.


The purpose of this study is to identify potential reductions of energy use2 and Green House Gases (GHG) emissions in the U.S. downstream (i.e., after production) supply chain of ethanol and gasoline fuels, by determining optimal transportation modes and routes. The analysis considers ethanol producers and fuel blending terminals, including consolidation and receiving hubs (Russell et al., 2009). Likewise transportation modes used for shipping ethanol are taken into account - rail, truck - in order to determine optimal delivery. Initial results support the need for construction of a new hub consolidation terminal or the expansion of the existing ones. This initial study leaves gasoline fuels, as well as shipments of ethanol via barge or vessel and of gasoline via pipeline, for a future extension.


Background and objectives: Type D personality, characterized by two stable traits (social inhibition and negative affectivity), is associated with adverse cardiovascular events. A possible mediating factor for this association could be hypertension. Previous research has shown that individuals with Type D personality were associated with an increased risk of hypertension. However, the association of negative affectivity and social inhibition on blood pressure in normotensive individuals has not yet been reported. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate whether negative affectivity and social inhibition were associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure in normotensive middle-aged and older Taiwanese adults. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used. Individuals attending general health examination at a regional hospital in southern Taiwan who were 40 to 75 years old were recruited. Patients with self-reported hypertension or currently receiving antihypertensive medication were excluded. Negative affectivity and social inhibition were assessed with the 14-item Type D Scale-Taiwanese version. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to determine the association of Z-score transformed negative affectivity and social inhibition on blood pressure. Results: A total of 92 patients with a mean age of 51.5 years were included in the study, and 15 (16.3%) were defined as having a Type D personality. The Z-score transformed negative affectivity score (p = 0.035, effect size = 0.18) and Z-score transformed social inhibition score (p = 0.054, effect size = 0.17) were significantly associated with a higher systolic blood pressure. In addition, the Z-score transformed negative affectivity score (p = 0.036, effect size = 0.28) and Z-score transformed social inhibition score (p = 0.154, effect size = 0.24) were significantly associated with a higher diastolic blood pressure. Conclusions: Negative affectivity of the Type D personality was significantly associated with higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure, with a medium effect size, in apparently healthy middle-aged and older adults. Assessment of negative affectivity may be clinically useful in identifying individuals at risk of hypertension.


Background Increases in PaCO2 lead to increases in cerebral blood flow (CBF) and may therefore predispose to intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH). Periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) correlates with hypocarbia in ventilated very low birth weight (VLBW) infants possibly due to decreases in CBF. The safe upper and lower limits of PaCO2 in VLBW infants need to be determined. Hypothesis Higher levels of PaCO2 are associated with an increased risk of IVH. Design/Methods Medical records review of 561 VLBW infants 401 to 1250 g at birth admitted to a Level III neonatal intensive care unit between 1/1/ 2000 and 12/31/ 2002. Data collected included main prenatal and neonatal variables, including severe IVH (grades III and IV) and blood gases in the first 4 days after birth. The highest, lowest, and time-weighted average PaCO2 were collected and included in uni- and multivariable analyses with severe IVH as the dependent variable. Results Mean birth weight (± SD) was 840 g (± 209) and median gestational age was 26 weeks. The maximum PaCO2 (median [25th-75th centiles]) 72 [62-88] vs. 59 [50-70] mm Hg, p < .001) and the time-weighted average CO2 (mean 49 vs. 47 mm Hg, p = .003) were significantly higher, and the minimum PaCO2 was lower (32 [28-37] vs. 36 [30-42], p < .001) in patients with severe IVH. Both extremes of PaCO2 predicted severe IVH but the time-weighted average PaCO2 had lower accuracy (AUC of the ROC curve for maximum PaCO2 = 0.71; minimum PaCO2 = 0.66; time-weighted average PaCO2 = 0.58 [p < .05 vs. max and min PaCO2]). A maximum PaCO2 > 60 mm Hg had 79% sensitivity and 53% specificity, and a minimum PaCO2 < 38 mm Hg had 78% sensitivity and 45% specificity for severe IVH. Multiple logistic regression analyses identified maximum PaCO2, minimum PaCO2, time-weighted average PaCO2, gestational age, 5 minute Apgar score, and use of prenatal steroids as the major variables independently associated with severe IVH. Conclusions Extreme levels of PaCO2 are associated with severe IVH in VLBW infants, but bias cannot be excluded. Although causality cannot be inferred from this analysis, a careful evaluation of the data from randomized trials on minimal ventilation on the relationship between PaCO2 and IVH is required to determine if a "threshold effect" does exist.


The validity of using a highly charged capacitor as 'electric armour' on light tanks is investigated. The capacitor discharges a large amount of energy into the incoming projectile, causing it to vaporise. It is found that a potential difference of 1kV is required to charge the capacitor to the desirable electric potential energy to vaporise the projectile.


Islamic economics and finance have increased in importance over the last few decades, with new Islamic financial institutions opening up and a number of important books published on the topic. This glossary, fully updated and revised for the new edition, uses easy to understand language to introduce terms used by Muslim scholars, historians and legal experts. The book covers terms from Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Malaysian and English sources whilst covering the Islamic side of such terms as taxation, banking, insurance, accounting, and auditing. The book's unassuming yet comprehensive nature will appeal to economists, bankers and accountants as well as students and researchers with an interest in economics and finance.


Researchers have utilized the fact that many states have term limits (as opposed to being eligible for reelection) for governors to determine how changes in electoral incentives alter state regulatory agency behavior. This paper asks whether these impacts spill over into private sector decision-making. Using data from gubernatorial elections in the U.S., we find strong evidence that power plants spend less in water pollution abatement if the governor of the state where the plant is located is a term-limited democrat. We show that this evidence is consistent with compliance cost minimization by power plants reacting to changes in the regulatory enforcement. Finally, we show that the decrease in spending has environmental impacts as it leads to increased pollution. JEL classifications: H32, H76, Q25, Q53, Q58


There is an enormous interest in the renormalization of the quasiparticle (qp) dispersion relation of cuprate superconductors both below and above the critical temperature T_{c} because it enables the determination of the fluctuation spectrum to which the qp's are coupled. A remarkable discovery by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is a sharp low-energy feature (LEF) in qp spectra well below the superconducting energy gap but with its energy increasing in proportion to T_{c} and its intensity increasing sharply below T_{c}. This unexpected feature needs to be reconciled with d-wave superconductivity. Here, we present a quantitative analysis of ARPES data from Bi_{2}Sr_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{8+δ} (Bi2212) using Eliashberg equations to show that the qp scattering rate due to the forward scattering impurities far from the Cu-O planes is modified by the energy gap below T_{c} and shows up as the LEF. This is also a necessary step to analyze ARPES data to reveal the spectrum of fluctuations promoting superconductivity.


Sexual prejudice remains a widespread problem worldwide. Past research demonstrates that cross-orientation contact (contact between heterosexuals and lesbian/gay individuals) reduces sexual prejudice among heterosexuals, especially when contact is high quality. This study extends the literature on the relationship between cross-orientation contact and sexual prejudice and the mediation of this relationship by intergroup anxiety by examining the role of a key ideology - essentialist beliefs about homosexuality (immutability, universality, and discreteness beliefs). Findings indicate that the mediation of the relationship between cross-orientation contact and sexual prejudice by intergroup anxiety differs by level of essentialist beliefs. Additionally, the relationship between cross-orientation contact and sexual prejudice appears to be mediated by essentialist beliefs as well as intergroup anxiety. These results suggest that individuals who endorse essentialist beliefs commonly associated with increased bias (high discreteness and low immutability and universality beliefs) may benefit the most from cross-orientation contact and resultant decreases in intergroup anxiety. Further, decreasing essentialist beliefs generally associated with increased bias may be a mechanism through which cross-orientation contact reduces sexual prejudice. Implications and future directions are discussed.


The relations of control/regulation‐related temperamentally based dispositions (effortful control (EC), impulsivity, and approach/avoidance) to externalizing problems and personality ego resiliency were examined in a sample of 467 children (M age = 7.46 years), some of whom were children of alcoholics (COAs). In addition, we examined if the relations of temperamental regulation/control to maladjustment/ego resiliency were moderated by COA status or sex of the child. In general, regulated, controlled temperament was negatively related to externalizing problems and EC was positively related to ego resiliency. Relations between a problematic temperament and externalizing problems were stronger and sometimes only found for COAs, especially male COAs. Ego resiliency was positively related to high father‐reported approach for boys who were not sons of alcoholics. In addition, COA status was related to high impulsivity, approach behavior, and externalizing problems and low EC.


When conducting a speech and language therapy intervention study, one essential
focus is the evaluation of outcomes. The therapy itself and its actual delivery, often
discussed in the context of treatment fidelity (TF), are aspects which are mostly
carried out in the background. According to Cherney et al. (2013), however, TF is an
important component of any behavioural treatment study and should therefore be
investigated.
This article presents a study of TF embedded in a wider research project that
evaluates a new conversation-based therapy for people with agrammatic aphasia and
their conversation partners (Beckley et al., 2013; Beeke et al., 2011; Beeke et al., 2014).
The therapy is called Better Conversations with Aphasia (BCA). Using the concept of
TF, the degree to which BCA was delivered as planned can be measured. A pilot version
of a BCA-specific observational fidelity tool was developed, based on a conceptual
model of TF (Carroll et al., 2007), on practices reported in the TF literature and on the
generic therapy session plans. The results indicate that, in terms of adherence to the
therapy content, a high fidelity level (91.9 %) was reached for BCA. This article will
also report on the degree to which the therapist showed desired behaviour associated
with the delivery of BCA, and findings from an inter-rater reliability investigation of
the fidelity tool. It concludes with reflections on the importance and value of TF
investigations in speech and language therapy intervention.


The healthy balance of two very different disciplines—profession and business—that has made investment management a wonderful realm in which to make our lives and our livings, now appears to be getting out of balance, according to the author. Business disciplines are increasingly dominant, even dominating. The author argues that this could bring increasingly unhappy consequences for both our clients and ourselves.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
This review summarizes recent basic science studies on homeostasis of iron, an essential dietary nutrient and potentially toxic metal, and explores the relevance of these studies to our understanding of trauma and related severe, acute events.

RECENT FINDINGS
Recent studies in experimental models of iron homeostasis have added to our understanding of how iron levels are regulated in the body and how iron levels and iron-dependent biological processes contribute to trauma and related events. Iron deficiency, a common nutritional disorder, can impair critical organ function and wound and injury repair. Iron excess, typically because of genetic defects, can cause toxicity to tissues and, like iron deficiency, impair wound and injury repair. Finally, pharmacologic inhibition of ferroptosis, a novel form of iron-dependent cell death, is beneficial in animal models of cardiac, hepatic, and intestinal injury and intracerebral hemorrhage, suggesting that ferroptosis inhibitors could serve as novel therapeutic agents for trauma and related events.

SUMMARY
Perturbations in iron homeostasis can contribute significantly to an individual's predisposition to trauma and their ability to recover posttrauma, whereas pharmacologic targeting of ferroptosis may attenuate severity of trauma-induced organ dysfunction.


Target model update plays an important role in visual object tracking. However, performing optimal model update is challenging. In this work, we propose to achieve an optimal target model by learning a transformation matrix from the last target model to the newly generated one, which results into a minimization objective. In this objective, there exists two challenges. The first is that the newly generated target model is unreliable. To overcome this problem, we propose to impose a penalty to limit the distance between the learned target model and the last one. The second is that as time evolves, we can not decide whether the last target model has been corrupted or not. To get out of this dilemma, we propose a reinitialization term. Besides, to control the complexity of the transformation matrix, we also add a regularizer. We find that the optimization formula's solution, with some simplifications, degenerates to EMA. Finally, despite the simplicity, extensive experiments conducted on several commonly used benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach in relatively long term scenarios.


Background and Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the Hand Static Rest Splint on reducing the pain and other compliance of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Materials and Methods: In the present clinical trial, 12 patients, aged 35-50 (average: 39 years) with RA, referring to the Occupational Therapy Unit of Taleghani hospital and meeting America College of Rheumatology diagnostic criteria, were included. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was administered and swelling, tenderness and morning stiffness were assessed. Moreover, assessments of active range of motion using goniometry and grip strength with Jamar dynamometer in both hands were performed. Statistical analysis of data was performed using t-test and Mann-Whitney Test for two independent samples and willcoxon tests and paired t-test for paired samples run in SPSS, version 18. The level of significance was set at p˂0.05. Results: The findings showed that the Static Rest Splint led to improvement in the wrist range of motion (flexion p=0/005, extension p=0/03) when the two groups were compared, but it did not have a significant effect on Morning Stiffness (p=1), pain (p=0/1), Swelling (p=0/06), and Tenderness (p=0/2). However, when compared between after and before intervention in hand with splint, pain (p=0/02) and wrist range of motion (p=0/004) improved. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the current study, and since using splints only improve range of motion in the wrist compared between two groups and pain relief before and after the intervention, it seems that using hand Static Rest Splint to reduce other symptoms need further investigation and also given that the use of this position without stress on the tendon can be effective in reducing the causes deformity, further studies are needed to more delineate these points.


: The activity-directed isolation of new tumor inhibitors of plant origin has yielded many novel compounds with significant growth-inhibitory properties. A large proportion of the new compounds contain highly electrophilic functionalities and chemical and biochemical studies are yielding a growing body of evidence to support the view that these compounds may act by selective alkylation of growth-regulatory biologic macromolecules. The selectivity may result from many factors, among which are transport of the tumor inhibitor into the cell and the chemical nature and steric environment of the specific nucleophile to be alkylated. Model studies support the hypothesis that the inhibition of tumor growth by the new agents may be attributable to selective alkylation of key enzymes which control cell division.


Sea-keeping characteristics of a wave-adaptive modular catamaran, developed by Marine Advanced Research Inc., is studied using at-sea experiments and dynamic modeling. The vehicle is based on the Proteus design and is supported by two inflatable pontoons with each pontoon attached to a center payload tray using an independent suspension system connected in such a way that the demi-hulls perform somewhat independent motions through a wave field. The suspension system is designed to isolate the center payload tray from the motions induced by waves incident on the demi-hulls. The vehicle is propelled by two water jets and is capable of achieving speeds of 8–15 knots. Accelerometers have been mounted on the pontoons and the center payload tray of the vehicle and field tests in the open ocean have been carried out to study sea-keeping properties of the vehicle. Heave and surge motions for the cases of following seas, beam seas and head seas have been recorded. In each case the center payload tray is found to experience attenuated heave accelerations compared with the two pontoon hulls. The reductions in surge and sway motion are, however, not evident. The associated spectra suggest that heaving motion of the center payload tray over a range of frequencies is attenuated by the suspension system. No attenuation is apparent in the surge and sway motions. The WAM-V dynamics is modeled as a three-body problem with the pontoons corresponding to bodies 1 and 2, and the central tray to body 3. Results of the analysis are compared with the sea trials.© 2013 ASME


The planar transmission line technology development led to the introduction, during the 1960s, of the microwave integrated circuits (MICs). Their much lower size and fabrication cost in comparison to the conventional waveguides/tubes microwave technology, made them ideal to be widely utilized, in conjunction with semiconductor device technology, in modern high-frequency communication transceivers. This technology opened the door for new communication uses, which over the years have evolved to present applications such as the 4th generation (4G) mobile telecommunications technology, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Digital Terrestrial Television (TDT), radar systems, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) guidance, etc. Nowadays, energy efficiency has become a priority in the design of many microwave wireless systems. Since the power amplifier (PA) stage is typically responsible for the largest percentage of the total system power consumption, its design deserves special attention, among other transceiver nonlinear components. Moreover, microwave PA stages are usually required to fulfill other demanding specifications, such as increased bandwidth, high linearity, high gain, etc., and, generally, trade-offs have to be considered. Furthermore, signals to be processed must be bandwidth efficient, presenting complex modulations and a high Peak Average Power Ratio (PAPR), as for example the WIFI or WIMAX standards, occasionally involving high frequencies and/or powers. Such demanding performances required from the nonlinear circuits are only achievable with the use of efficient Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools, i.e. device/circuit models and circuit simulators, besides an adequate fabrication technology. Hence, precise active device nonlinear models and reliable measurement tools, able to perform the required electrical characterizations under large-signal regime, are mandatory. Active device nonlinear models must predict, not only the direct current (DC) and small-signal device response, but also the large-signal behavior, single-tone and multi-tone. Furthermore, in the case of bipolar transistors and large periphery Field Effect Transistors (FETs), the prediction of their thermal behavior, static and dynamic, is important. Nowadays, the most popular transistor models for nonlinear Monolithic MICs (MMICs) CAD are empirical nonlinear analytic models, also known as compact models, like the VBIC model. They offer good computational efficiency and are easily implemented in commercial circuit simulators. Unfortunately, they entail the extraction of numerous parameters, from structured sets of device measurements, involving complex and time-consuming optimization procedures. Other modelling alternatives have been proposed. For instance, """"black box"""" model approaches, like the time-domain table-based and frequency-domain behavioral ones, allow for direct extraction but require more exhaustive experimental characterizations. For the extraction of any of these nonlinear models, not only the adequate microwave measurement system, but also the corresponding control software, are mandatory to perform the necessary devices/circuits nonlinear characterizations. Conventional Vector Network Analyzers (VNAs) allow for linear devices characterizations by means of scattering parameters (S-parameters), but are not adequate for nonlinear characterization, unless suitably upgraded. To overcome this limitation, several nonlinear measurement systems have been developed in recent years, under the denomination of Nonlinear Vector Network Analyzers (NVNAs). Among the NVNAs (LSNA, PNA-X, VTD SWAP-X402, to cite a few), the Large Signal Network Analyzer (LSNA) was the first commercially available receiver allowing fully nonlinear characterizations up to 20 GHz. In this context, the main objective of this thesis work has been to implement, through the use of a LSNA-based nonlinear measurement system, nonlinear characterization and model extraction techniques of microwave active devices, for CAD design of nonlinear microwave circuits (oscillators and RF power detectors, among others). In particular, in this work it has been used an LSNA model MTT4463B by Maury-NMDG, with a microwave bandwidth from 600 MHz to 50 GHz, and upgraded during this thesis to include a low-frequency bandwidth from 10 KHz to 24 MHz. Different measurement systems configurations have been set up for the different type of device characterizations required in this work. The corresponding hardware/software configurations implemented are described, as well as the different transistor and diode characterizations developed: DC, small-signal, single and multi-tone CW large-signal, hybrid load-pull measurements, X-parameters measurements, base-band measurements, etc. The first step has been the setting up of the LSNA-based large-signal measurement system, for active device nonlinear characterization and model extraction, and to study the consistency of the large-signal measurements performed in different NVNAs based systems. Measurements from two LSNA-based systems and one sampling oscilloscope based, enhanced with active load-pull capabilities, were compared. From the study it was concluded the importance of matching the system impedances, at fundamental frequency and harmonics, of the three systems to guarantee the consistency of the measurements for the same active device. Efficient extraction procedures have been developed of both compact and black-box nonlinear models, specifically of microwave bipolar transistors and diodes from different semiconductor technologies. III-Vs and SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), both on-die and packaged, as well as packaged Schottky diodes have been used in this work. On this context, two new techniques have been proposed in this work to enhance VBIC model extraction for HBTs. The first proposed method is based on applying sensitivity analysis techniques to guide the model parameters extraction, through selective sweeps of the dominant parameters. This method improves the accuracy of the extracted model with respect to conventional extraction procedures, and forces the consistency of the obtained set of model parameters. The second proposed technique makes it possible to extract the VBIC current and thermal model parameters exclusively from DC measurements at a single ambient temperature, hence, avoiding the use of the expensive thermally controlled measurement facilities, usually required with the conventional method.


We consider the integer L-shaped method for two-stage stochastic integer programs. To improve the performance of the algorithm, we present and combine two strategies. First, to avoid time-consuming exact evaluations of the second-stage cost function, we propose a simple modification that alternates between linear and mixed-integer subproblems. Next, to better approximate the shape of the second-stage cost function, we present a general framework to generate optimality cuts via a cut-generating linear program that considers information from all solutions found up to any given stage of the method. To address the impact of the proposed approaches, we report computational results on two classes of stochastic integer problems.


ABSTRACT The Gal3, Gal80, and Gal4 proteins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae comprise a signal transducer that governs the galactose-inducible Gal4p-mediated transcription activation ofGAL regulon genes. In the absence of galactose, Gal80p binds to Gal4p and prohibits Gal4p from activating transcription, whereas in the presence of galactose, Gal3p binds to Gal80p and relieves its inhibition of Gal4p. We have found that immunoprecipitation of full-length Gal4p from yeast extracts coprecipitates less Gal80p in the presence than in the absence of Gal3p, galactose, and ATP. We have also found that retention of Gal80p by GSTG4AD (amino acids [aa] 768 to 881) is markedly reduced in the presence compared to the absence of Gal3p, galactose, and ATP. Consistent with these in vitro results, an in vivo two-hybrid genetic interaction between Gal80p and Gal4p (aa 768 to 881) was shown to be weaker in the presence than in the absence of Gal3p and galactose. These compiled results indicate that the binding of Gal3p to Gal80p results in destabilization of a Gal80p-Gal4p complex. The destabilization was markedly higher for complexes consisting of G4AD (aa 768 to 881) than for full-length Gal4p, suggesting that Gal80p relocated to a second site on full-length Gal4p. Congruent with the idea of a second site, we discovered a two-hybrid genetic interaction involving Gal80p and the region of Gal4p encompassing aa 225 to 797, a region of Gal4p linearly remote from the previously recognized Gal80p binding peptide within Gal4p aa 768 to 881.


An appendix presents detailed salt production figures for early seventeenth-century Yucatan. Andrews has produced an important compilation of archaeological, historical, and ethnographic data on salt exploitation, production, and exchange in the Maya world. The limitations of these data, which Andrews explicitly acknowledges, preclude definitive statements about the specific roles of salt in the evolution of Maya civilization, but the information and tentative reconstructions presented here will reward anyone interested in the Maya with a wealth of stimulating ideas.


textabstractTreatment with oral anticoagulant therapy entails a delicate balance between over(
risk of bleeding) and under- (risk of thrombemboli) anticoagulation. Therapy is
therefore monitored to maintain its anticoagulant effect within a narrow range. The
main aim of this research was to determine the optimal intensity of long-term
anticoagulant therapy in 3404 post-myocardial infarction patients.
Chapter 1 gives a review of long-term clinical trials which assessed the mertts
of anticoagulant therapy in the secondary prevention of morbidity and mortality after
myocardial infarction. This review includes the results of more than thirty trials
reported in the literature in the past forty years, however, unpublished data or results
of small trials, were not considered. Few of these trials were randomized, and the
level of anticoagulation was properly maintained in only some of these studies. The
results of most of these trials have failed to convincingly demonstrate the beneficial
effects of long-term anticoagulant therapy as a secondary preventive measure and
the use of such therapy has therefore remained controversial.
Chapters 2 and 3 describe the design and execution of the ASPECT
(Anticoagulants in the Secondary Prevention of Events in Coronary Thrombosis)
trial. The main results of this trial are submitted in Appendix-A. ASPECT was
designed to be a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled, multicentre trial
which compared standard oral anticoagulant therapy with placebo with regards to
mortality and cardiovascular events. Chapter 2 describes the design and procedures
of the ASPECT trial in detail, in particular the methods for double-blind anticoagulant
titration. Chapter 3 presents an outline of the data processing system as used in
ASPECT. A standardized procedure which was developed for data handling insured
a high level of data quality derived from the participating centres.
Chapters 4, 5 and 6 addresses the effectiveness and safety of oral
anticoagulant therapy. Chapter 4 reviews various methods, previously described, to
evaluate therapeutic achievement of anticoagulant therapy in the ASPECT trial. In
Chapter 5, the optimal achieved intensity of anticoagulant therapy required to
prevent recurrence of arterial thromboembolic and haemorrhagic complications was
quantitatively evaluated with regard to the international normalized ratio (INR)
intensity preceding the event, enabling the calculation of INR-specific incidence
rates. The INR expresses the level of anticoagulant therapy in an internationally
agreed term. It is the common term for the prothrombin time as measured in a
patient on oral anticoagulant therapy. Chapter 6 gives a detailed description of the
risk of stroke in the ASPECT population.
Finally, a discussion of the findings is provided in Chapter 7, followed by
recommendations for further research


This paper presents simulations of lithography test structures, Murray daggers and contact arrays, and includes comparisons to experiment. Murray daggers are triangular structures whose height is determined by lithography system resolution and process conditions. The tip of a dagger can be seen optically (with a 50 or 100X magnification), making it simple to use. Contact arrays are measured by locating the smallest size contact where the resist has cleared. Aerial image and development simulation programs (SAMPLE) are used to find clearpoint regions in the structure for given lithographic conditions. The location of the clearpoint within the structure is then mapped out as a function of stepper exposure dose and defocus value. Correlations of dagger and contact array readings to develop check CD's are also derived. From the structures investigated, it is found that contact arrays with varying dimensions are sensitive to defocus at low doses (1.2 times the dose needed to clear a large area in the resist, 1.2E0), and that line daggers are the most sensitive at high doses (3.6E0). Sensitivity to exposure dose depends on defocus for all the test structures, but the space dagger appears to be the most reliable indicator. Correlations of printed spacewidth to test structure readings reveal sensitivities on the order of .1 micron/ 1 increment change observed in readings. Experimental dagger measurements suggeit that the simulations are correct.


Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a leading cause of death in pregnancy and postpartum. Clinicians face a difficult choice when deciding whether to use diagnostic imaging to investigate for suspected PE in these patients, between risking potentially catastrophic consequences of missed diagnosis if imaging is withheld and risking unnecessary iatrogenic harm to both mother and fetus if imaging is overused. This paper explores the options for imaging and evidence for the use of clinical features, clinical predictions scores or biomarkers to select pregnant and postpartum women for imaging. It also considers where future research could be most appropriately directed.


The REITs market has attracted a lot of interest among the academic, policymakers, and market participants. The linkages between REITs and macroeconomic and financial variables have been adequately explored in the literature, with more emphasis on linear models. This study expands the frontier of knowledge by examining the role of uncertainty in the comovement/spillover between REITs and the currency markets. Some interesting results were observed. First, using the Diebold and Yilmaz (2012) spillover test, we find that there is strong connectedness between the REITs and currency markets. Second, the BDS test shows that nonlinearity is a very crucial factor to be put into consideration when examining the role of EPU in affecting the interactions between REITs and exchange rate markets. Third, the non-parametric causality-in-quantile test confirms that the connectedness between the markets and EPU is stronger around the lower and middle quantiles. These results have important policy implications for policymakers and market participants. The study also offers suggestions for future research.


Intended to help researchers of the musical instrument industry, An Annotated Index to Selected Articles from The Musical Courier, 1880-1940 is the first index to collect citations from the more than 20 volumes of this preeminent 19th- and 20th-century American music trade publication. Peter H. Adams has assembled an exhaustive list of over 3,500 citations of articles, illustrations, and advertisements related to the musical instrument industry between the start of The Musical Courier in 1880 until 1940 when the editors of The Musical Courier had changed the focus of their periodical. This two-volume edition contains citations to editorials, obituaries, announcements, scholarly articles, and investigational articles of importance to musical instruments and affecting music in general. The first volume presents citations alphabetically under subject headers common to the musical instrument industry of the time, while the second volume organizes citations by the periodical's volume number. Citations on many different topics related to musical instruments are indexed, such as construction practices, descriptions, tools, exhibitions and collections, new technologies, and laws and legal actions relating to the industry. More than 400 citations on companies and manufacturers of instruments; over 700 entries on patents, trade marks, and designs for new or improved instruments; and over 200 entries on musicians and composers are included. Additionally, researchers of African-American music and culture, women's rights, John Philip Sousa, Antonin Dvorak, and the influence of the rise of Nazi Germany on music in Europe will find significant articles. This substantial reference concludes with four appendixes that cross-reference citations by company name, occupation of persons and companies, locations, and patent numbers, providing greater accessibility to researchers.


The power crust is a construction which takes a sample of points from the surface of a three-dimensional object and produces a surface mesh and an approximate medial axis. The approach is to first approximate the medial axis transform (MAT) of the object. We then use an inverse transform to produce the surface representation from the MAT.
This idea leads to a simple algorithm with theoretical guarantees comparable to those of other surface reconstruction and medial axis approximation algorithms. It also comes with a guarantee that does not depend in any way on the quality of the input point sample. Any input gives an output surface which is the `watertight' boundary of a three-dimensional polyhedral solid: the solid described by the approximate MAT. This unconditional guarantee makes the algorithm quite robust and eliminates the polygonalization, hole-filling or manifold extraction post-processing steps required in previous surface reconstruction algorithms.
In this paper, we use the theory to develop a power crust implementation which is indeed robust for realistic and even difficult samples. We describe the careful design of a key subroutine which labels parts of the MAT as inside or outside of the object, easy in theory but non-trivial in practice. We find that we can handle areas in which the input sampling is scanty or noisy by simply discarding the unreliable parts of the MAT approximation. We demonstrate good empirical results on inputs including models with sharp corners, sparse and unevenly distributed point samples, holes, and noise, both natural and synthetic.
We also demonstrate some simple extensions: intentionally leaving holes where there is no data, producing approximate offset surfaces, and simplifying the approximate MAT in a principled way to preserve stable features.


This thesis is primarily concerned with the mathematical analysis of some Markov processes which take place on a two-dimensional lattice of points in the first two chapters, mathematical models of two biological phenomena are considered, namely the competition for survival between two species, and the effect of an epidemic on a population. These models are obtained by a known method which permits certain random variations in the population sizes. For the model of the competition process, it is found that one of the species almost certainly becomes extinct, and the likelihood of the extinction of a given species is investigated. Also, the expectation of the the time-at which extinction occurs is bounded, irrespective of the initial state, and an estimate is made of the total number of births and deaths that occur before this time. For the epidemic model, it is found that the epidemic almost certainly dies out, and the expectation of the time at which this event first occurs is estimated when the initial population is large. Various questions on the eventual state of the population are also considered. In the third chapter, a class of recurrent two-dimensional random walks in discrete time is considered. A limiting law is found for the probability distribution of first passage times which is identical to the limiting law in the analogous situation for Brownien motion. The method is also applied to certain continuous time random walks and to certain random walks in three dimensions. The last problem considered is the distribution of points at which e simple unsymmetric discrete time random walk makes its first passage through the boundaries of the half and quarter planes. The limiting distribution is found to be a form of either normal distribution or stable distribution of order half.


Introduction Recent data from phase III clinical trials showed that in previously untreated patients (pts) with indolent (low-grade) non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (iNHL) bendamustine plus rituximab (BR) resulted in superior progression-free survival (STiL NHL 1-2003) and non-inferior response rates (STiL NHL 1-2003 and BRIGHT) compared to R-CHOP. Since clinical trials are restricted to highly selected pts, we here investigated effectiveness of BR and R-CHOP in unselected pts treated in routine practice by German office-based haematologists. Methods The open, longitudinal, multicentre, clinical registry on lymphoid neoplasms (TLN Registry, ClinicalTrial.gov registry NCT00889798) prospectively collects data on the treatment of pts with lymphoid B-cell neoplasms as administered by a network of German office-based haematologists. Pts are followed for 5 years. A broad set of data regarding patient and tumour characteristics, comorbidities, all systemic treatments and response rates, progression-free survival and overall survival are recorded. Automated plausibility and completeness checks with subsequently generated queries by the electronic data capture system ensure data reliability. In addition, data managers regularly check for plausibility and issue queries. Since May 2009, 111 sites have recruited a total of 2897 pts. Results 633 pts with iNHL (52% follicular, 13% mantle cell lymphoma), recruited at the onset of their 1 st -line therapy and treated with BR (82%) or R-CHOP (18%), were included in this analysis. The choice of the regimen was upon the decision of the treating physician in accordance with the patient´s informed consent. Pts were median 69 years (yrs) old (range 24-93 yrs), 54% were male, 55% had tumour stage IV (Ann Arbor), 24% presented with B symptoms, 25% with bulky disease, and 61% with at least one comorbidity. Clinical and tumour characteristics differed between pts receiving BR or R-CHOP: Pts treated with BR were older (median 70 vs. 61 yrs; p Objective response rate (ORR) as assessed by the local site was comparable between the two regimens: 91% of pts receiving BR (39% complete response (CR)) and 94% receiving R-CHOP (43% CR) responded to 1 st -line therapy. Both regimens were applied with median 6 cycles. In univariate analyses young age, male sex, follicular subtype and absence of comorbidities were significantly associated with an objective clinical response to the 1 st -line regimen. In a multiple logistic regression analysis adjusted for type of 1 st -line regimen (BR vs. R-CHOP) and age at the onset of therapy, the likelihood for response was lower for older pts (OR=0.96; p=0.017), while the type of 1 st -line regimen had no effect (OR=1.19; p=0.738). At this point, the small number of non-responders (n=36) precluded analyses of more than two potential confounders. After a median follow-up of 15 months (maximum 39 mth), 94% of pts receiving BR are alive and 4% received 2 nd -line therapy. In pts receiving R-CHOP 91% are alive and 9% pts received 2 nd -line therapy. Overall, 4% are lost to follow-up. Conclusion Our data show that previously untreated pts with iNHL receiving BR or R-CHOP in routine practice differ, with BR preferentially given to pts with a less favourable prognostic profile. Nevertheless, response rates to 1 st -line treatment with BR or R-CHOP appeared to be comparable. These results support response data from the NHL 1-2003 (StiL) and the BRIGHT study. BR: bendamustine + rituximab ± prednisone │ R-CHOP: cyclophosphamide + doxorubicin + vincristine ± prednisone + rituximab Disclosures: Knauf: Mundipharma, Janssen, Roche Pharma: Consultancy, Honoraria.


In this paper, we introduce a new framework for unsupervised deep homography estimation. Our contributions are 3 folds. First, unlike previous methods that regress 4 offsets for a homography, we propose a homography flow representation, which can be estimated by a weighted sum of 8 pre-defined homography flow bases. Second, considering a homography contains 8 Degree-of-Freedoms (DOFs) that is much less than the rank of the network features, we propose a Low Rank Representation (LRR) block that reduces the feature rank, so that features corresponding to the dominant motions are retained while others are rejected. Last, we propose a Feature Identity Loss (FIL) to enforce the learned image feature warp-equivariant, meaning that the result should be identical if the order of warp operation and feature extraction is swapped. With this constraint, the unsupervised optimization is achieved more effectively and more stable features are learned. Extensive experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of all the newly proposed components, and results show that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art on the homography benchmark datasets both qualitatively and quantitatively. Code is available at https://github.com/megvii-research/BasesHomo


Malonyl-CoA is an inhibitor of carnitine palmitoyltransferase I, the enzyme that controls the oxidation of fatty acids by regulating their transfer into the mitochondria. Despite this, knowledge of how malonyl-CoA levels are regulated in skeletal muscle, the major site of fatty acid oxidation, is limited. Two- to fivefold increases in malonyl-CoA occur in rat soleus muscles incubated with glucose or glucose plus insulin for 20 min [Saha, A. K., T. G. Kurowski, and N. B. Ruderman. Am. J. Physiol. 269 (Endocrinol. Metab. 32): E283-E289, 1995]. In addition, as reported here, acetoacetate in the presence of glucose increases malonyl-CoA levels in the incubated soleus. The increases in malonyl-CoA in all of these situations correlated closely with increases in the concentration of citrate (r2 = 0.64) and to an even greater extent the sum of citrate plus malate (r2 = 0.90), an antiporter for citrate efflux from the mitochondria. Where measured, no increase in the activity of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) was found. Inhibition of ATP citrate lyase with hydroxycitrate markedly diminished the increases in malonyl-CoA in these muscles, indicating that citrate was the major substrate for the malonyl-CoA precursor, cytosolic acetyl-CoA. Studies with enzyme purified by immunoprecipitation indicated that the observed increases in citrate could have also allosterically activated ACC. The results suggest that in the presence of glucose, insulin and acetoacetate acutely increase malonyl-CoA levels in the incubated soleus by increasing the cytosolic concentration of citrate. This novel mechanism could complement the glucose-fatty acid cycle in determining how muscle chooses its fuels. It could also provide a means by which glucose acutely modulates signal transduction in muscle and other cells (e.g., the pancreatic beta-cell) in which its metabolism is determined by substrate availability.


Massive development of broiler farms has led to many socio-environmental problems. Based on idea that broiler farm must be located at suitable location, an expert system for site selection based on the socio-environmental factors and sustainable principles is urgently needed to cope with this problem. The objective of this research was to develop a mobile-based expert system as a guidance for broiler farmers to choose best location for broiler farm. There were four factors considered in the system: 1) ecology and environmental impact, 2) economic and infrastructure, 3) natural condition, and 4) natural disaster vulnerability, each of which consists of sub-factors. A mobile-based expert system has been developed by using opensource web GIS server and PostgreSQL/PostGIS, and can be installed on Android device. As conclusion, a mobile-based expert system has been developed and can be used to determine suitable location for broiler farm development .


Introduction: Sepsis still represents an obstacle in modern medicine. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the combined use of lipopolysaccharide adsorption and haemodialysis (HD) with high cut-off haemofilters as part of the complex intensive care of patients with severe sepsis after cardiac surgery. Methods: The study group included 26 patients, 57 (48-62) years of age, with severe sepsis. The inclusion criteria were clinical signs of severe sepsis (systemic inflammatory response syndrome + infection site + failure of two or more organs) together with endotoxin activity assay (EAA) ≥0.6 and procalcitonin (PCT) levels ≥2 ng/ml. Antimicrobial therapy was initiated in the first hour after the diagnosis of severe sepsis and extracorporeal therapy was initiated within 24 h. All of the patients in the study group received standard therapy. Additionally, they received treatment consisting of two LPS adsorption procedures and HD procedures with high cut-off haemofilters in a single circuit. For the control group, 30 comparable patients, 57 (51-61) years of age, were selected and received only standard therapy. Results: After the last HD procedure within the extracorporeal therapy, we noted an increase in the mean arterial pressure from 76 to 90 mm Hg, p < 0.01, and oxygenation index (from 226 to 291, p < 0.02), in addition to decreases in the LPS concentration according to EAA (from 0.73 to 0.59, p < 0.01) and the Limulus amebocyte lysate test (from 1.44 to 0.36 IU/ml, p < 0.01); PCT falls from 8.19 to 2.44 ng/ml, p < 0.01, and sepsis-related organ failure assessment scores decreases from 13 to 10, p = 0.007. When we compared the data between the study group the day after the procedures and the control group 3 days after the start of intensive care, we discovered that there were statistically significant differences in mean arterial pressure (90 vs. 81 mm Hg, p = 0.0004), oxygenation index (291 vs. 229, p = 0.01), and EAA levels (0.59 vs. 0.67, p = 0.05). Differences in the PCT were not significant (2.44 vs. 3.41, p = 0.15). The 28-day survival rate in the study group was higher than that in the control group (65.4 vs. 33.3%, p = 0.03). Conclusion: The combined use of LPS adsorption and HD with high cut-off haemofilters in conjunction with standard therapy is a safe, effective method for treating patients who have severe sepsis.


The question of voice is a central and timeless political issue. Who gets to speak? Who is silenced? Who is listening? One of the main arenas for voice in modern, advanced democracies is the media. Media infrastructures, technologies, institutions and organizations are a precondition for political voice in large-scale societies, but are also an important factor in distributing the possibilities for voice among different groups and sectors of the population. In this article, we take on the question of voice in relation to social class and aim to analyse how the medium of television gives voice to people from different social classes. This study operationalizes the theoretical notion of voice by asking the following questions: who has the opportunity to appear and speak on television, to whom do they speak and under what circumstances does this communication occur? Based on a content analysis of television in Sweden, the results from this study show that voice is distributed in a highly unequal manner. It also shows that the relations enacted by television appearances conform to the social hierarchy. Whereas people from the ruling class frequently speak to people from the working and middle classes, they are rarely spoken to by members of a class that is positioned below their own. Television thus constructs a social hierarchy of voice and authority that reproduces and legitimizes already existing social hierarchies.


Some novel techniques to do periodic poling of KTP are described. Emphasis on ways to avoid domain broadening and merging of domains is presented with reference to the original properties of flux grown KTP. For sub-μm structures E-beam lithography and deep UV-laser lithography were used to pattern the samples, and chemical process to promote selective poling to obtain high quality domain gratings in up to 1 mm thick samples.


Non-cisgender and non-straight identity language has long been a site of contention and evolution. There has been an increase in new non-cisgender, non-straight identity words since the creation of the internet, thanks to social media platforms like Tumblr. Tumblr in particular has been host to many conversations about identity and self-naming, though these conversations have not yet been the subject of much academic research. Through interviews and analysis of Tumblr posts, this thesis examines the emergence of new identity words, or neo-identities, used by non-cisgender and non-straight users of Tumblr. The work presents neo-identities as strategies for resisting and challenging cisheteronormative conceptions of gender and attraction, as well as sources of comfort and relief for non-cisgender/non-straight people who feel 'broken' and excluded from mainstream identity categories. This thesis also posits that Tumblr is uniquely suited for conversations about identity because of its potential for self-expression, community, and anonymity.


Performance attributes such as energy use or natural ventilation are becoming rapidly more important in the design of modern buildings. As a basis for the improvement of existing visualization techniques in this application domain, we provide a detailed tasks and requirements analysis using feedback from an architect. State-of-the-art visualization strategies used for building performance simulation results are then evaluated by comparing them to the quality aspects derived before. This assessment specifically reveals shortcomings with respect to the applied techniques for visualizing spatiotemporal data. Therefore, we discuss the potential of utilizing other visualization techniques to meet the identified prerequisites and reveal future directions based on these findings.


The pitahaya or dragon fruit is one of the most representative exotic fruits that Colombia has, with an important, growing international market, but the cultivation and postharvest of this fruit lack sufficient technological support to be more competitive. Therefore, alternatives that provide good-quality products that meet market requirements are very important. Therefore, the objective of this research was to determine the effect of a ripening retardant and ethylene application on the conservation and quality of pitahaya fruits and the possible changes during ripening associated with ethylene, for which a completely randomized design with three treatments was used, corresponding to the application of ethylene (ethephon, 3 mL L -1 ), 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP, 600 mg L -1 ) and a control, with four replications, for a total of 12 experimental units. The fruits were stored at 18°C with 75% relative humidity. The 1-MCP application significantly decreased the loss of firmness, total soluble solids, loss of fresh mass and respiratory rate. Fruits from the control and ethylene treatment tended toward a climateric respiratory behavior. The total carotenoid content of the fruits was significantly higher in the ethylene application and the control treatment, which was consistent with the color change of the fruits. It can be concluded that the 1-MCP application reduced the ethylene action, slowing the ripening of the dragon fruits.


7500 gates for Central Park In February 2005, Christo and Jeanne-Claude will complete a monumental work of art in New York City's Central Park. The project, first conceived in 1979, will feature 7500 16-foot-high vinyl gates lining the park's paths, from which will hang saffron-colored fabric panels. Seen from the buildings surrounding the park, The Gates will look like a golden, flowing river, while those walking through them will experience the ambience of a fluid, golden ceiling. Financed entirely by the artists through their C.V.J. Corporation, The Gates are to be fabricated and assembled in local factories and installed by local workers, thus providing employment for thousands of New York City residents. The temporary work of art will remain in place for 16 days, after which it will be disassembled and the materials recycled. The installation will be free for all visitors, who can continue to use Central Park undisturbed during the whole process. This historic event is intended to provide a memorable and joyous experience for every New Yorker, and TASCHEN will document this project from start to finish in two editions. A first edition will be published in January 2005, containing photo documents and preparatory drawings for The Gates. In February 2005, directly after the installation has been realized, a second edition will be published, containing 32 extra pages showing photographs of the completed work of art.


During sliding of metallic surfaces, the near surfaces undergo significant changes in terms of topography, composition and microstructure. Since friction and wear behavior of the materials are strongly influenced by sub-surface deformations, it is fundamental to investigate these effects. Therefore, the present study aims towards a better understanding of the behavior of friction depending on well-defined initial microstructures. By performing sliding experiments on Au-Ni multilayer samples under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions, we observe that the individual layer thickness of multilayer systems has a strong influence on friction behavior due to the transition in the dominant deformation mechanism near the surface. The experiments reported here provide a new route for lowering the friction force of metallic material systems in dry contact by providing more stable microstructures and alloy formation. Through ultrafine grains present in the alloy formed by mechanical mixing the number of grain boundaries strongly increases and hence, grain boundary-mediated deformation results in the low friction coefficient.


Although the importance of the household of Moscoso for understanding the political evolution and lordship dynamics at the Kingdoom of Galicia in the XVth century not much new documents have been dug up. According to that, we present some relevant documents about the origins of the fortress of Altamira, the royal privileges at the towns of the northwest coast of Galicia, the title of Judge of Soneira, and the royal participation in the lawsuits between Altamira and Santiago, besides some documents relating to the practical administration of the dominion.


Olson (1965) formulated a "Logic of Collective Action". We investigate whether a logic of collective action in plant breeding - and research and development generally - can be constructed. Using a case study on the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR) as well as other real-world institutions of collective action in R&D, we construct an expanded logic of collective action, which revolves around two core features: Impure public goods and the tragedy of the anticommons. Provisions of FLAR and other institutions are related to game theory and contract theory, and theoretical, methodological and policy implications are outlined.


Presented in this paper is an experimental investigation of the steady-state air-side pressure drop through a delugable bare tube bundle. The tube bundle forms a part of a systematic investigation of the subcomponents of a hybrid dry/wet dephlegmator (HDWD), also known as a secondary steam condenser, used in direct dry-cooling. A modular bare tube bundle is designed and built to experimentally investigate the pressure drop in a counter-flow test facility with 19 mm and 25 mm tubes at various tube depths. The tests are conducted under both dry and wet (deluged) operating modes. The test results are used to develop empirical correlations for both dry and wet operating modes. The absolute average error is found to be 3.2% between the measured and predicted values for the dry correlation and for the wet correlation the absolute average error is found to be 4.5%. The newly developed correlation is used in a thermal case study to illustrate the effect of the under- and overprediction that the air-side pressure drop will have on a relatively small evaporative cooler where two cases corresponding to fan power consumptions of 1.1 kW and 5.5 kW were considered.


This paper presents a user localization system based on the fusion of visual information and sound source localization, implemented on a social robot called Maggie. One of the main requisites to obtain a natural interaction between human-human and human-robot is an adequate spatial situation between the interlocutors, that is, to be orientated and situated at the right distance during the conversation in order to have a satisfactory communicative process. Our social robot uses a complete multimodal dialog system which manages the user-robot interaction during the communicative process. One of its main components is the presented user localization system. To determine the most suitable allocation of the robot in relation to the user, a proxemic study of the human-robot interaction is required, which is described in this paper. The study has been made with two groups of users: children, aged between 8 and 17, and adults. Finally, at the end of the paper, experimental results with the proposed multimodal dialog system are presented.


This study aimed to investigate interactions between families and shelter institutions, based on the bioecological theoretical model of human development by Urie Bronfenbrenner. The interaction between workers of an institution in the extreme South of Brazil and the family members of a sheltered child were followed during the process of family reinsertion. The professionals showed idealized beliefs and perceptions that prescribe the expectations and life style of traditional nuclear families. The family, in turn, feared the judgments of the institution representatives due to the possibility of losing the guard of their other non-institutionalized children. Therefore, the reports of the family and the institution revealed mistrust between the two contexts, which hinders and postpone the return of children to their original families.


BACKGROUND
Nitric oxide (NO) is produced by nitric oxide synthases (NOS), which are either constitutively expressed in the kidney or inducible, in resident and infiltrating cells during inflammation and allograft rejection. NO is rapidly degraded to the stable end products nitrite and nitrate, which can be measured in serum and urine, and may serve as noninvasive markers of kidney allograft rejection.

METHODS
Total nitrite and nitrate levels (NOx) were measured in serum and urine thrice weekly after an overnight fast in 18 consecutive patients following renal cadaveric transplantation. Inducible NOS (iNOS) and endothelial NOS (eNOS) expression was immunochemically determined in renal biopsy specimens with or without acute rejection (AR).

RESULTS
Serum NOx levels increased days before AR and were significantly higher at the moment of AR (27+/-12.4 micromol/L) compared with recipients with an uncomplicated course (13+/-7.6 micromol/L), but not compared with recipients with cyclosporine (CsA) toxicity (20+/-13.0 micromol/L). Urinary NOx levels were significantly lower during AR (20+/-13.6 micromol/mmol creatinine) compared with an uncomplicated course (64+/-25.2 micromol/mmol creatinine) or CsA toxicity (53.8+/-28.3 micromol/mmol creatinine). Interstitial and glomerular iNOS expression was significantly increased in biopsy specimens showing AR. Unexpectedly, glomerular eNOS expression was significantly decreased in patients with AR.

CONCLUSIONS
This study reports differences in NOx levels in serum and urine, which may help discriminate AR episodes from an uncomplicated course or CsA toxicity. As expected, renal iNOS expression is increased in acute allograft rejection. The decrease in glomerular eNOS expression suggests an intriguing link between acute and chronic rejection.


BACKGROUND
Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) improves aerobic fitness in children, which is usually assessed by maximal oxygen consumption. However, other indices of aerobic fitness have been understudied.

OBJECTIVE
To compare net oxygen (VO2net), net energy consumption (Enet), net mechanical efficiency (MEnet), and lipid oxidation rate in active and inactive children across body weight statuses.

DESIGN
The sample included normal-weight, overweight, and obese children of whom 44 are active (≥30 min of MVPA/d) and 41 are inactive (<30 min of MVPA/d). VO2net, Enet, MEnet and lipid oxidation rate were determined during an incremental maximal cycling test.

RESULTS
Active obese participants had significantly lower values of VO2net and Enet and higher MEnet than inactive obese participants at all load stages. In addition, active obese participants showed a significantly higher lipid oxidation rate compared with inactive obese and active overweight and normal-weight participants. VO2net, Enet, and MEnet were similar across active children, regardless of body weight status.

CONCLUSIONS
Thirty minutes or more of MVPA per day is associated with a potentiation of aerobic fitness indicators in obese prepubertal children. Moreover, the indices of aerobic fitness of inactive obese children are significantly different from those of active obese and nonobese ones.


Cold bending is applied at locations where the pipeline direction has to be changed in a horizontal or vertical plane. The process of cold bending usually results in residual stresses as well as changes in the material properties at the vicinity of the cold bend location which makes the study of the mechanical behaviour of cold bends indispensable. Due to discontinuous permafrost in arctic regions as well as slope instabilities and earthquakes cold bends within pipelines constructed in such locations can be subjected to significant tensile or compressive forces.Experimental studies were carried out by Sen et al [1][2][3]in order to investigate the buckling behaviour of pressurized cold bends. In these experiments the curvature of the cold bend is increased in the presence of a constant internal pressure. In their experimental study a total of 8 full scale tests were conducted with a variety of pipe diameters, diameter to wall thickness ratio and steel grade. In this set of full scale tests one of the pipes with grade X65 failed due to fracture at the extrados after buckling and formation of wrinkles at the intrados[1].Our previous work [4], [5] on this subject showed the simulations of this case using finite element analysis. These simulations demonstrated that indeed pipe body tensile side fracture can be observed for this particular pipe specification. Whereby the tension side fractures are expected starting from a specific internal pressure level. The simulation results showed that the equivalent plastic strain values at the cold bend extrados increase dramatically starting from a certain level of applied curvature in load cases with an internal pressure higher than a transition value. In this paper the effect of steel grade on this transition from compressive to tensile failure is investigated. Parametric studies are conducted for the entire range of steel grades tested in the experimental study of Sen et al. It is found that there is a linear proportionality between the steel grade and the transition internal pressure for steel grades between X60 and X80.Copyright © 2014 by ASME